Growing Doubts Over Climate Change Causes

The British public is increasingly sceptical that human activity is to blame for climate change, a poll for Sky News suggests.

Almost one in five people believes that natural processes rather than man-made carbon dioxide emissions are causing global warming, according to the survey by Sky Data.

In a similar poll by YouGov two years ago, just one in 14 people said humans were not responsible for the problem.

The Sky News poll comes ahead of the United Nations summit in Paris that is likely to result in big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Prime Minister David Cameron will be among almost 150 world leaders attending the talks.

The survey suggests he could struggle to sell a climate deal if it increases household bills.

It shows 54% of the public oppose green taxes on petrol, electricity and imported food.

Just over a third would back extra taxes on products with a high carbon footprint.

The UN wants world leaders to agree a deal that would limit the rise in average global temperature to 2C, regarded by the overwhelming majority of scientists as the danger point for the world’s climate.

That would mean cutting worldwide emissions by 40-70% by 2050 and 100% by the end of the century.

Source: Poll: Growing Doubts Over Climate Change Causes

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One Response to Growing Doubts Over Climate Change Causes

  1. A public opinion poll is certainly not a reasonable way to judge the validity of a scientific theory, however I think this illustrates the problem with government climate intervention thus far.

    Climate change is still a relatively poorly understood phenomenon. It is well understood that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, that humans have increased atmospheric CO2 by some parts per million and that the Earth has gotten warmer relative to 100 years ago. What is far more uncertain is how much human produced CO2 has actually affected climate.

    When looking for solutions to the perceived problem, those solutions have always come in the form of some sort of carbon tax to make carbon more expensive to use and thereby increasing the viability of more expensive alternative energy sources. This is a ridiculous approach that can only cause more problems than it potentially helps alleviate. Instead of increasing the costs for energy, food, and just about everything else for everyone, either enough research has to be done in order to lower the costs of (and increase the reliability of) alternative energy sources or some other technical solution needs to be used at a much lower cost.